Miami and the Siege of Chicago: An Informal History of the Republican and Democratic Conventions of 1968

ISBN: 0399588337

Author: Mailer, Norman

Condition: New

In this landmark work of journalism, Norman Mailer reports on the presidential conventions of 1968, the turbulent year from which todays bitterly divided country arose. The Vietnam War was raging; Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy had just been assassinated. In August, the Republican Party met in Miami and picked Richard Nixon as its candidate, to little fanfare. But when the Democrats backed Lyndon Johnsons ineffectual vice president, Hubert Humphrey, the city of Chicago erupted. Antiwar protesters filled the streets and the police ran amok, beating and arresting demonstrators and delegates alike, all broadcast on live television-and captured in these pages by one of Americas fiercest intellects.Praise for Miami and the Siege of ChicagoFor historians who wish for the presence of a world-class literary witness at crucial moments in history, Mailer in Miami and Chicago was heaven-sent.-Michael Beschloss, The Washington PostExtraordinary . . . Mailer [predicted that] we will be fighting for forty years. He got that right, among many other things.-Christopher Hitchens, The AtlanticOften reads like a good, old-fashioned novel in which suspense, character, plot revelations, and pungently describable action abound.-The New York Review of Books[A] masterful account . . . To understand 1968, you must read Mailer.-Chicago Tribune